Episode 61

full
Published on:

30th Jun 2025

Someone, open me up by Lindsey

Someone,
open me up.
Fillet me,
from my shoulder blades,
kneed out the knots I’ve collected
throughout the years.
Flip me over and crack open my ribcage,
lungs deflated,
heart popping out at you like a jack-in-the-box.
Pour bleach down my airways,
forget other aesthetics
and make me pure like a candy cigarette.
cut out my heart,
Rumor has it that it's beaten for too long.
Look inside,
see the heart string that broke,
the thinning of the aortic valve.

I hear my liver is rotten,
kidneys growing mushrooms;
my throat’s got a hole in it,
my tongue growing blue.

Put a heart-shaped patch
over every hole I've made, give me new, paper maché organs,
ones I can’t feel in my chest.

Give me taffy heart strings
in a cotton candy heart,
pump me with helium,
and sew me back together with
ribbon and maybe,
just maybe,
I’ll be okay.

- Lindsey


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Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem Only

Write After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.

#WriteAfterOPO

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About the Podcast

One Poem Only
I'm Maggie Devers, and each day I'll read you a poem-nothing more, nothing less. No analysis, no noise-just a little space to listen.
A daily reading. A quiet moment. One poem, center stage: just for now, just for you. A one-night-only show, in verse.

Come back tomorrow. The curtain rises again.
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Maggie Devers